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Sunday, April 1, 2001

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tourbook review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

***Special thanks to Vicky Lynch of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nonna Bannister was a young girl when World War II broke into her happy life. She went from an idyllic early-twentieth-century Russian childhood, full of love and comforts, to the life of a prisoner working in labor camps—though she was not a Jew—eventually bereft of her entire family. But she survived the war armed with the faith in God her grandmother taught her and a readiness to start a new life. She immigrated to America, married, and started a family, keeping her past secret from everyone. Though she had carried from Germany the scraps of a diary and various photographs and other memorabilia, she kept it all hidden and would only take it out, years later, to translate and expand her writings. After decades of marriage, Nonna finally shared her secret with her husband . . . and now he is sharing it with the world. Nonna died on August 15, 2004.

My Thoughts
There has been many book written about the horrors of the second world war. But this is different. Why? Well first of all the story of the person in this book is from a survivor of the holocaust. This young woman has lost everyone she loved but somehow she survived. She was also able to hide and keep some pictures from her life before the war and her journal that she continued to write whilein captivity with the Germans.

This biography will give you some perspective on the life before the war and life during the war. It is well written and organized with pictures showing you the life before the war and the arrival of Nonna in America. After she arrived in America, she hid her story and didn't reveal it to her husband until way later in life.

You will grow to love this young lady as she goes through a difficult period in her life. You will also discover copies of her documents through the years as well as genealogy. She also took the time to write a chronology of the events that happened and that she witnessed. The book also contains a glossary of names and places mentioned throughout the reading. Finally, Nonna also included a little information about herself and the things she loves. It will help you discover a little bit more about this wonderful lady who passed away in 2004.

This book is moving and will bring your to tears at some point. But I think it is a nice addition to your own library because I find it important to know the story of people who lived the war and survived it. It is important I find that this is not repeated in the future.

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister is available everywhere even at amazon.ca and indigo.ca.